Bearing Good Fruit, Or Bad? … by Kaela McKellips

John 15 is a great chapter! I would like to share with you some thoughts that I had about this portion of Scripture.

Open up your Bibles! Let’s start with verse 1, in John 15.

John 15:1 – “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.”

So, Yeshua is the vine and His Father (YHWH) is the husbandman (other words for that could be vinedresser, farmer, or chief).

John 15:2 – “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every [branch] that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”

James 5:7 says “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.”

Heb 12:11 says “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

So now, we read that if we don’t bear fruit (the fruit of the spirit), we are going to be plucked out, and thrown away. It is not going to be easy all of the time, but afterwards, we will be rewarded with the peaceful fruit of righteousness if we endure through it. He will be patient though, to make sure that every possible sprout gets harvested! Every time that we do bear good fruit, He will nourish and take care of it, so that we will be encouraged to bear more fruit.

Heb 13:15 says “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of [our] lips giving thanks to his name.”

John 15:3 tells us that once we are made clean, we are to abide in Him, and He will abide in us. If we are not connected to the vine (Yeshua), how are we ever going to be able to bear good fruit?! If we are not part of the whole, we cannot do anything! When we are just branches that have been cut off from the vine, we are now dead, worthless fruit that are going to be thrown into the fire.

In verse 7, He says that if we abide in Him, He will give us whatever we ask for. Well, we have to understand that we are to ask in His name. We cannot just ask for whatever we want, but He will answer us according to His will.

John 15:16 – “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”

When we are loving to one another, He will love us and give us everlasting joy! Verse 13 is the ultimate picture of true love for one another – “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

John 15:17 – “These things I command you, that ye love one another.”

Continue on to verses 14-15. If we follow His commandments, and follow in His footsteps, we are called His friends. It says that we are no longer servants, but friends. We have been chosen of YHWH. He actually chose us to be His!

Read the rest of the chapter. In this world, we are going to be persecuted, because we serve the One True God. The world hates God, so therefore it will hate us. YHWH chose us and so we are not of the world. If we were of the world, the world would have peace with us.

Look at Paul, John, and many others – they were persecuted heavily. They had true faith though. They were not about to dump their faith just because they were not treated well. That is why we have to a build a deep relationship with our Father, so that we will be prepared for hardships.

That is hard for me to think about; I lose my patience with just the little things that people say to me that I sometimes may not want to hear. If persecution comes, take comfort in the Lord. People hate Yeshua because He came down to earth, to forgive sins. He had to reveal the sins first, and people do not like that. Therefore, people will hate us because we serve YHWH. These people are ignorant, and reject Yeshua, who died for their sins.

When I really think about it, I realize how just a couple of mean things said about me hurts, but Yeshua was greatly persecuted, had all sins put on Him, forgave all trespasses, and when people reject Him, He is still waiting for them to return to Him so that He can forgive them some more!

We must bear good fruit, but first, we have to abide in Him!

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